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Reviewed by:
  • The Chinese in the Caribbean
  • Lucy M. Cohen
The Chinese in the Caribbean. Edited by Andrew Wilson. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2004. Pp. xxiii, 230. Illustrations. Maps. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. $48.95 cloth; $24.95 paper.

Editor Andrew Wilson emphasizes that to date, no single work has attempted systematically to cover Chinese communities in the Caribbean. Common historical trends of trade, migration, sugar and colonialism bind the region together and allow for some generalization. He proposes to build a foundation with discrete studies of migration, communities, families, and individuals. The volume contains an introductory essay with eight articles drawn mostly from Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad, Cuba and Panama. The time frame spans the late nineteenth to the twentieth century. Contributors include established scholars as well as new generations, most of whom are drawn from the humanities and social sciences.

Walton Look Lai's chapter on the Chinese indentured labor system in the British West Indies and its aftermath places Chinese labor movements within the contexts of Chinese and Caribbean history. His well-known research, based on in-depth understanding of colonial documents as well as demographic aspects of local and world movements of Chinese, continues to set models for scholarship. The place of Chinese émigrés within the social stratification system of Jamaica points to dynamic aspects of inter-ethnic relations and power which merit increased attention. Having explored the early settlements of Chinese and Indian émigrés in British Guiana and Trinidad, Anne Marie Lee-Loys emphasizes the importance of understanding how colonial elites used imported labor not only to fill needs but also to shape the ethnic hierarchy. Aspects of this topic are addressed also by Gail Bouknight-Davis, who [End Page 501] chronicles the rise to prominence of the Chinese in Jamaica's grocery sector, focusing on class and occupation.

Li Anshan draws on Chinese language materials, especially Chinese newspapers published in Jamaica, to present émigré views about aspects of community and associations over time. He draws on these sources to study models of Chinese integration in Jamaica particularly through community involvement and participation in local politics. His work underscores the importance of these local sources for a nuanced understanding of cultural dynamics. Kathleen Lopez highlights aspects of the history and settlements of Chinese in Cuba, focusing on experiences in Cienfuegos and Havana. Emphasis on the interconnections emigrants had with their villages of origin in China is particularly informative. Given the decline in Chinese migration to Cuba in past decades, government-sponsored initiatives to "recover" Chinese customs and traditions through the Havana Chinatown Promotion Group have high priority. Within the context of "recovery" of forgotten history, Mitzi Espinosa Luis sensitively captures the life history of an elderly Chinese "uncle."

Lok Siu's research among the Chinese in Panama draws on documentary sources and detailed ethnographic interviews to discuss the webs which link Chinese to China and across co-ethnic communities in the Americas, with a distinct form of diasporic consciousness and identity. She suggests that the concept of diaspora should not be based solely on the idea that people scatter from one homeland to many different locations. Unlike contemporary transnational studies, it incorporates a set of relations, discourses and sentiments that bind migrants not only to their homelands but also to their co-ethnic communities dispersed in other locations. Migration is fluid and connected, rather than a process that concentrates on "ruptures and disjunctures."

This welcome collection brings together historical, social and cultural aspects of the Chinese influence in the Caribbean covering various time periods. It provides a useful reader for specialists, students, and other interested publics. Some readers might have welcomed a more detailed discussion of the concept of the Caribbean area itself, in light of contemporary literature on understudied aspects of the Hispanic Caribbean. Lok Siu's narratives from Panama suggest that future efforts to build a series of studies of Chinese in the Caribbean should increasingly explore the views of Chinese women who are active participants in the changing Chinese communities of the region.

Lucy M. Cohen
Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.
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